So what is LFDS? It’s an acronym that stands for the Low Fantasy Deficiency Syndrome. In other words, I need more low fantasy stories!
And what do I mean by low fantasy? Well, one of my favorite meanings of low fantasy is when the public knows very little about magic, or they may have never even heard of it. It seems like that fantasy stories these days, such as Lord of the Rings, had pretty much everyone know about magic and even use it. In low fantasy, however, very few people would know about magic. It was something that is waiting to be found…
There is this special kind of charm when magic isn’t a common knowledge in stories. I would describe it as discovery. I mean, I think I would be very happy if in real life, I found a ring that can make me invisible. Do you know anyone else in real life that found an invisibility ring? Apparently not. In high fantasy, however, usually no one would care at all because it wasn’t uncommon to become invisible. There were even better versions of it. “Who cares if you got an invisibility ring? I got an Improved Invisibility spell that I can cast it on forty people!” Then I would feel that my invisibility ring is inferior, if not worthless.
And how about an example of a video game with a high fantasy storyline? Actually, this one is more directed towards MMORPG’s. “Oooh… you got a Flaming Sword. Big deal! I have a million of those, and my brother has a Perfect Flaming Sword of Fortitude +3!” The whole high fantasy genre seems to extinguish the sense of discovery because your findings aren’t that rare. “Oh wow, you know how to cast a light spell… too bad everyone is using that spell for street lights.” You would also get NPC’s that hand out magical items to you for finishing a quest… the same quest that thousands of other players have already done.
I’m not sure about you guys, but I have a feeling that I’m one of the very few who prefer low fantasy over high fantasy. It’s a no brainer that high fantasy is so popular these days. I’m not saying that I don’t like high fantasy. I just love to experience the discovery in fantasy.
By the way, I think PC Gamer has already made an article about the benefits of low fantasy. I lost the issue, unfortunately.
I played the MMORPG Tibia. There it used to be a little less magic than there are now. There were mainly knights/paladins (melee/distance) because the mages were hard/expensive to play! Then there came a øot of “mage-updates” and in a few years the knight were downgraded, and all the ones to be feared was mages and they were easy to lvl.(you would fear a lvl. 100 mage back in the day too, but it would be really hard to lvl. it…).
They balanced it by adding “magic” powers to the knight
I don’t like the fantasy genre either. I prefer things more grounded in reality.
That’s why I don’t write fantasy too… occasionally the supernatural gets in, but mostly it’s potential real-life situations… Political troubles, historical events, stuff like that.
I like Chris Ryan’s books a lot due to this. They are grounded in reality, and always have that element of realism gained from his own experiences…
I disagree with your statement that it is so in LOTR. every one know that some magic exist, or have heard of it, but very little do use such magic, and they are mostly not famous. The ring is one of the only magical items there.
I just need to understand what you define as “Public”. Is the “Public” every single person in the world, or is it also refering to people in secret organizations? In other words, will Harry potter be considered Low Or High? (I believe that High, I just want to be sure) Will any smaller group of magic users (I am speaking of quite high numbers, thousand for example) be considered Low or High? (That is, when the group finds magic users and train them)
And lastly, are you speaking about modern ages or earlier times in history?
Sorry about that. I haven’t seen or read Lord of the Ring for a long time so I shouldn’t have used it as as example. And I mean “public” as in everyone in the world. Perhaps the bartenders are using magic to clean the dishes or it is considered “normal” for an elf to walk into a store.
By the way, I was focusing on a specific meaning of low fantasy: magic isn’t widely know or used by the inhabitants of a world. Low fantasy can have other meanings, like historical fantasy and dark fantasy.
According to Wikipedia (yes, I got my information from Wikipedia), Harry Potter is considered to be a low fantasy book because it takes place in the United Kingdom. In fact, Harry starts out in a place where no one knows a thing about magic or the society that uses it. I also bet that Nightmare on Elm Street is a low fantasy movie because it takes place in the real world, and very few people know about a murderer that can invade dreams.
existance and reality is a fantasy, the world may seem low fantasy and down to earth, but teh, my freind there is so much you are not seeing. IN FACT, reality has more fantasy in it, than high fantasy stories, books and games!. Reality is like the greatest Fantasy story ever! There are things you can do my friend… when you know this… heh, heh heh. Heh, heh, heh Ha! If you only new how Infinitly High fantasy reality is! hee hee! Sha-Yeah!!!
try the books of katherine kerr, (ask mag about them )
they do have magic (call it dweomer) and a lot of fighting, but the magic isn’t “instant” and they have to work for it; also explaining how they use it and such. It’s nice with reincarnation of the main characters and such. only 14 books to read too though
first book is “daggerspell”. From there, see if you like it
What is the seriess "the wilderness of four " on the one hand there are elves walking everywhere , but on the otherhand magic (apart from the elves inherent abbility to make themselves invisble) is very scarce …
Greets , sakoda
Not to go off topic but…this title always reminds me of that SNL skit, where the producer of Blue Oyster Cult says: “I have a fever, and the only cure is more cowbell.”
May I recommend (in random order): The Western Shore book series by Ursula K. Le Guin. His Dark Material book series by Phillip Pullman. The Longest Journey video game. Pan’s Labyrinth film. Sandman comic by Neil Gaiman. Fables comic by Bill Willingham. Earthsea book series by Ursula K. Le Guin. (Not completely low-fantasy but still.)
John Ajvide Lindqvist is a good writer I don’t know if you could say it’s fantasy maybe it’s more like horror but his book
“Let the right one in”/“Let me in” Takes place in Sweden, it’s normal just like our world but he adds a vampire to the mix, noone believes vampires exist in this book.
Don’t know if that is what you wanted and on the other hand I don’t think it’s translated to english yet but it was a good book
/Magnus
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